DENVER—Colorado lawmakers gave final approval to an $18.8 billion budget for the next fiscal year Wednesday that will preserve funding for higher education but will require furloughs or pay cuts for state workers.

The budget now heads to Gov. Bill Ritter, who can approve it or veto parts of it. Lawmakers passed the budget bill on the last possible day to have enough time to override any vetoes before adjourning for the year.

They must adjourn by May 6. The budget is for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

The final version of the budget, backed by the Joint Budget Committee and adopted by both the House and Senate, cuts payments to private prisons and doctors who treat Medicaid patients. It also cuts $15 million from health clinics that mostly serve the uninsured. The money is raised by a tobacco tax approved by voters, but lawmakers have declared a fiscal emergency and will use that money instead for general government purposes.

The House made most of the cuts the first time it tackled the budget, so re-adoption there was not contentious. In the Senate, both Republicans and Democrats had problems with the final budget but in the end only Republicans voted against it, saying the cuts didn’t go deep enough.

State colleges and universities were originally facing $450 million in cuts, but lawmakers had hoped to make up for $300 million of that by taking money from the surplus of a state-created workers compensation insurance company. But, by the time the budget bill passed the Senate and reached the House, lawmakers abandoned that plan. The company, Pinnacol Assurance, said it would sue to stop lawmakers from taking the money, which could have tied up the funds for months, so lawmakers looked for other ways to make up for the $300 million.

The final version of the budget included about $100 million in cuts. The other $200 million or so would come from moving money around from other funds, such as the state’s tobacco settlement money and federal mineral royalties; getting $45 million in additional federal Medicaid funds; and imposing a state sales tax on cigarettes and vending machine snacks.

Cigarettes are now exempt from regular state sales tax but are covered by other taxes. The new proposed tax on cigarettes would raise an estimated $30 million a year, while the vending machine tax would bring in about $8 million a year.

A separate Democratic bill introduced Wednesday would also get rid of a tax credit for capital gains earned on Colorado assets. Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, said the tax break is illegal according to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction, said the budget relies too much on new taxes and gimmicks and lawmakers might have to get called back into session if the June economic forecast shows tax revenue dropping further.

“At some point, we’re going to have to make tough choices,” he said.

But Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, objected to calling the moves gimmicks. He compared the moves to how a family might max out their credit cards and tap into their savings to buy time until their finances improved. He also rejected comparing the state to businesses that have been forced to make cuts because of the recession.

“Sorry, boys and girls, but the reality is that government has to do what it does 24/7 regardless of the economy,” Morse said.

Morse and other Democrats objected to the $15 million in cuts for health clinics, and some questioned whether they would support the budget as a result. But Morse said he voted for the final budget because Republicans were pressing for additional cuts that he thought could have made the budget worse.

Higher education funding isn’t expected to be cut at all because Ritter plans to give schools $150 million in federal stimulus money intended to reverse education budget cuts.

A member of a "sophisticated cocaine trafficking conspiracy" was convicted Monday in federal court in Denver of conspiring to distribute, and possessing with intent to distribute, five kilograms or more of cocaine, according to prosecutors.

A man who shot two eighth graders at Deer Creek Middle School in 2010, and was found not guilty by reason of insanity to attempted murder, will not be allowed to leave the Colorado Mental Health Institute's grounds without supervision, according to a Jefferson County District Court ruling.

After the San Francisco Bay Area, metro Denver experienced the biggest apartment rent increases this decade in the country. But plenty of new supply should put future rent gains closer to the national average, according to a new report from RealPage, a real estate research firm.